Feeding device

ABSTRACT

A device for feeding a dosage of mashed food into the mouth of a patient. The device consists of a spoon-like feeding head (10) having an internal feeding channel (11), which is connected to a tubular, flexible container (20). The latter can be compressed for feeding a dosage by two mutually pivotable handle pieces (30,40).

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a device for feeding a dosage of food into themouth of a person, especially an elderly patient, and comprises aflexible container for receiving a dosage of food, said container beingcompressable for the discharge of said dosage through a feeding channelin a spoon-like feeding head.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A similar device (see SE-B-7905307-0) is intended for the feeding of adosage of liquid medicine into a child's mouth. The known device has aspoon part with a near neck, which is provided with an internal feedingchannel and is connected to a relatively flat, flexible containerserving as a spoon handle. The transversal side portions of the flatcontainer are held apart from each other by means of two spring membersextending from the rear neck of the spoon part along the inside of therespective transversal side of the container. By pressing thesetransversal sides towards each other directly by hand, the container canbe compressed, and when the pressure is released, a dosage of liquidmedicine can be sucked into the container through the feeding channel.Then, while feeding the child in a regular manner by the use of thespoon, the food can be mixed with a dosage of liquid medicine bysimultaneously compressing the container.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention, on the other hand, is to provide adevice for the feeding of a dosage of food, in the form of a liquidand/or, in particular, a mash, such as mashed potatoes, possiblycontaining small bits of solid food, into the mouth of a patient who hasdifficulty in eating in the normal way with a knife and fork or evenwith a spoon. Especially elderly patients have to be fed by anotherperson, e.g., by a nurse, and quite a few patients cannot eat from aspoon even with such help. Thus, there is a need for a special device,which will enable these patients to be fed neatly from, e.g., a platewith mashed food.

According to the invention, this object is fulfilled by a flexiblecontainer device which is tubular and compressable between two handlepieces which are mutually pivotable like a pair of tongs. The helpingperson holds the two handle pieces in one hand and presses the handlepieces towards each other. The mashed food can be sucked into thecontainer by letting the handle pieces pivot away from each other whilethe container expands by itself. The feeding head is then inserted intothe patient's mouth and the dosage of mashed food is fed into the mouthby pressing the handle pieces together again.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further advantageous features of the device will appear from thefollowing detailed description of a preferred embodiment, referencebeing made to the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the device in rest position with the handlepieces apart from each other;

FIG. 2 is a corresponding side view of the device in an operativeposition with the handle pieces pressed towards each other; and

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the device in the rest position of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The device consists of a spoon-like feeding head 10, a flexible, tubularcontainer 20 connected to the feeding head 10, and a pair of handlepieces 30,40 disposed on each side of the tubular container 20 and beingmutually pivotable so as to compress the container 20.

The feeding head 10 is shaped with outer contours like a spoon blade buthas no concavity for receiving food. Instead, it has an internal feedingchannel 11 extending along the whole longitudinal length thereof, i.e.,from a rear neck portion 12 to the front end 13'. The geometricalexternal shape of the feeding head is designed to give the device thegeneral impression of a spoon and to facilitate the insertion of thefeeding head into the patient's mouth, but the function of thespoon-like feeding head is quite different, namely, to enable suction ofa dosage of mashed food into the container 20 and feeding of the dosagethrough the internal feeding channel 11.

The neck portion 12 of the feeding head 10 projects backwardly from therear end thereof so as to form an upper recess 13 and a lower recess 14,respectively, between front shoulders 15 and 16, respectively, and arear, radially wider connection part 17, which is cylindrical to permitthe tubular container, constituted by a hose 20, to be fitted onto theexternal cylindrical surface of the connection part 17.

The feeding head 10 is preferably made of a dish-washable thermoplasticmaterial, such as polycarbonate or the like.

The flexible hose 20, on the other hand, is made of a softer material,such as silicon rubber, and is resilient enough to permit saidconnection of its front end portion 21 onto the part 17 of the feedinghead 10 and the insertion of a closure plug 23 at the rear end portion22, the end portions 21,22 being slightly expanded to provide a tightfit. The plug 23 has an outer hemispherical part 23a, connected to thehandle piece 30 by a cord 24, and an inner cylindrical part 23b, ontowhich the rear end portion 22 of the hose 20 is fitted.

Each handle piece 30,40, which is made by injection molding of a ratherrigid, dish-washable thermoplastic material, such as polycarbonate, issubstantially rectilinear in the longitudinal direction and has asubstantially C-shaped cross-section with an external, convex side andan internal, concave side. The rear end 31,41, respectively, is curvedinto a smooth substantially spherical surface portion, whereas the frontend portion 32,42 is tapered radially inwards towards the longitudinalcentral axis thereof, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 (in the pivotal plane ofthe handle pieces 30,40) and in FIG. 3 (in a longitudinal plane normalto said pivotal plane), so that the external surface of each front endportion 32,42 adjoins the spoon-like feeding head 10 smoothly. Also, bythis design, the front end portion 32,42 of each handle piece 30,40 willproject radially inwardly into the recess 13 and 14, respectively, inthe rear neck portion 12 of the feeding head 10. Thus, the axial endsurface 33 and 43, respectively (see FIG. 2) of the front end portion32, 42 abuts the front shoulder 15 and 16, respectively, in the openposition of the handle pieces as shown in FIG. 1, as well as in theclosed position thereof as shown in FIG. 2, whereas the concave insidesurface part of each front end portion 32,42 abuts the axial front end21 of the hose 20 fitted onto the radially wider connection part 17 ofthe neck portion 12 of the feeding head 10. The front end portion 32,42of each handle piece 30,40 is thereby confined in a well-defined axialposition relative to the feeding head 10. To prevent the two handlepieces 30,40 from moving apart from each other at their front endportions 32,42, a ring member 50, preferably made of steel, enclosesthese front end portions 32,42 and is retained axially in a transversalgroove 33,43 in each front end portion 32,42. As shown in the drawingfigures, each groove 33,43 is slightly wider in its central portion topermit the handle pieces 30,40 to pivot between the positions shown inFIGS. 1 and 2.

It will be apparent that each handle piece 30,40 is pivotable about arespective pivot axis located in the plane of the ring member 50slightly above and below, respectively, the central longitudinal axis ofthe neck portion 12 of the feeding head 10. Of course, it is alsopossible to provide a similar pivotal arrangement by way of transversalpivot pins through the two front end portions 32 42, to provide either acommon pivotal axis or slightly separated pivotal axes.

However, the illustrated embodiment without pivot pins has the advantagethat the device can easily be dismantled by pulling off the hose 20 fromthe connection part 17 of the feeding head 10, whereupon the ring member50 and the handle pieces 30,40 become loose and can be completelyseparated from each other.

At the concave inside of each handle piece 30,40 there is formed aunitary, rigid body 34,44, respectively, extending longitudinallytherealong in the region of the hose 20. In the illustrated embodiment,the rigid body 34,44 is dimensioned to partly fill the inside concavityof each handle piece except for the front portion 34a,44a thereof, whichis tapered towards the front end, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Moreover,the rear and front ends are smoothly curved.

When the handle pieces 30,40 are manually operated so as to be pivotedin the closing direction towards each other, the rigid bodies 34,44 willcompress the hose 20 therebetween, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Because ofthe tapered front portions 34a, 44a, the corresponding front portion ofthe hose will be only partially compressed, whereby the contentstherein, i.e., a dosage of mashed food, wil easily be pressed outthrough the feeding channel 11 of the feeding head 10 into the patient'smouth.

In the closed position, as shown in FIG. 2, the compressed hose 20 willexert a separating force, because of the elastic resiliency of thematerial, on the rigid bodies 34,44 and the handle pieces 30,40, sothat, when the manual pressure is released, the latter willautomatically pivot into the open rest position, as shown in FIG. 1,wherein the hose 20 has assumed its original cylindrical configuration.During such expansion of the hose 20, a new dosage of mashed food can besucked in through the feeding channel 11, e.g., from a plate with food.

After feeding a patient, the various parts (feeding head 10, hose 20,handle piece 30 with the attached plug 23, handle piece 40 and ringmember 50) are separated from each other before dish-washing.

The device can also be used for the feeding of animals.

We claim:
 1. A device for feeding a dosage of nutrient into the mouth ofa person, said device comprising(a) a flexible tubular container (20)for receiving a said dosage; (b) a spoon-like feeding head (10)connected to said container and having an internal longitudinal feedingchannel (11) extending entirely therethrough; (c) first and secondhandle pieces (30, 40) disposed on opposite sides of said container,said handle pieces being spaced apart in rest position, but beingpivotable toward each other about respective pivot axes located betweensaid container and said feeding head, so as to compress said containerto force said dosage through said feeding channel into said mouth; (d)each of said first and second handle pieces being provided with aninternal, longitudinally extending rigid body tapered toward a front endthereof, for squeezing said tubular container when said handle piecesare pivoted towards each other.
 2. A feeding device as defined in claim1, wherein said handle pieces are held apart in rest position solely bythe elastic resiliency of said tubular container.
 3. A feeding device asdefined in claim 1 or 2, wherein said tubular container is constitutedby a hose which is closable at a first end and connectable to a neckportion projecting from said feeding head at a second end.
 4. A feedingdevice as defined in claim 1, wherein each said handle piece has anoutwardly convex and an inwardly concave cross-section, said rigid bodybeing located on the concave inside of a respective handle piece.
 5. Afeeding device as defined in claim 4, wherein each said handle piece andthe associated rigid body are made in one unitary piece.
 6. A feedingdevice as defined in claim 1, wherein a front end portion of each saidhandle piece projects radially inwardly into a recess formed at a rearend portion of said feeding head, so that said respective handle pieceis axially positioned relative to said feeding head, and a holding meansis provided to radially hold said front end portion of each handle piecein said recess so as to retain said handle pieces in their axialpositions while permitting their relative pivoting movement.
 7. Afeeding device as defined in claim 6, wherein said holding means isconstituted by an external ring member surrounding said front endportions of said handle pieces.
 8. A feeding device as defined in claim6, wherein said ring member is axially confined in an external groove ineach handle piece.
 9. A feeding device as defined in claim 6, whereinsaid recess is formed by a neck portion extending from a rear endportion of said feeding head and having a radially widened rear endpart, to which said flexible tubular container is connectable.